Birmingham's Mailbox owner enjoys positive trading, rent collection strong

By

Nigel TAYLOR

Published
Jan 27, 2022

Regional commercial property group Mailbox REIT said Thursday it delivered “another positive performance, rounding off what was a strong first year as a public company”.

That meant the business continues to enjoy strong rent collection rates at its core 690,000 sq ft mixed-use office/retail Birmingham property with its Mailbox mall including upscale names such as Harvey Nichols, Calvin Klein, and Paul Smith as tenants.

However, non-executive chairman Stephen Barter said the business continues to reduce its retail commitment which will see the conversion of 50,000 sq ft of retail space to “higher value office accommodation”, due to open in Q2 2022.

As of 17 January, it said strong rent collection throughout 2021 continues into 2022 with Mailbox having collected 93.9% of the contractual rents for the quarter commencing 25 December 2021. However, while rent collection for offices stood at 100%, retail came in at 83.9%.

Of the remaining total 6.1% due during the quarter, 5.7% is expected to be collected through monthly payments, with the remaining 0.3% under discussions, bringing the total collection to just over 99%.

The company also said it remains fully invested in its  Mailbox asset, which is currently 95.2% occupied with a weighted average unexpired lease term of 13.5 years.